


Safe

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Hale Family, Alive Laura Hale, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Alternate Universe- Werewolves are still a thing, BAMF Derek, BAMF Stiles, Betrayal, Canon-Typical Violence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Full Shift Werewolves, Gun Violence, M/M, Sterek Bingo 2017, Threats of Violence, Violence, more charectors inside
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 13:51:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 20,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10968561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: The world had ended a couple of years ago, atleast, it felt that way... but there were rumors, rumors about these... places... called Havens, where supposedly you could be safe from The Dead, safe from scavengers and dictators and everything else, Stiles wasn't sure if he believed they existed... until he met Derek





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

> Oh God here it is, The Beast, the mammoth, the enormous thing I wrote originally for Alive Hales but shifted because of circumstances onto Enemies To Lovers (eh... ish.... my freind informs me that it counts) it's huge and it was only supposed to be a short thing *sobs* PLEASE APPRECIATE MY PAIN AND SUFFERING

The world had ended well over a year ago, or atleast, the world as they knew it

It was a new world now, one where humanity was an ever declining breed

There were pockets of people who were still living- not just surviving but really living- in some type of society, places called "Safe Havens", but Stiles hadn't found one yet, and he had been looking for what felt like ages

These "Havens"...

He wasn't even sure if they were _real_

They had only heard the occasional, stray rumor about them in passing, from people they either collected or fought off along the way

Some said that the Sanctuaries were just like what the world was before the apocalypse

Others said it was better, like a utopia

Some even said that Havens were dangerous, full of predators just trying to lure in innocent wanderers to scavenge from

There were rumors that the people running the Havens were kind, that they were strict, that they were dictators, and everything in between

Rumors that they were scientists, doctors, that this was all some kind of sick social experiment

Rumors that they were farmers or doomsday preppers or even cults who had constructed the walls and necessities long before the apocalypse happened

Hell some of the rumors were even that they weren't humans at all, but werewolves, vampires, or even lizard-people

Stiles didn't know what to believe, but he had to believe.. SOMETHING... because God there had to be something out there better than _this_

Something more than wandering around day in and day out in the blazing heat, scavenging for food and dodging zombies

Zombies wich his father had insisted on calling simply "The Dead"

(Because apparently "zombies" sounded too "unrealistic and corny")

Stiles missed his dad, he missed everyone, but especially his dad...

He hadn't been on his own THAT long he supposed, he had gotten separated from his group somewhere between two and three weeks ago, he wasn't sure, Lydia was always better with keeping track of time...

He heaved a sigh, annoyance seeping into his bones as the strange, scratchy, gurgling sound that signaled the tell-tale arrival of a zombie (or Undead) attracted his attention

Stiles carried plenty of weapons, but his favorite was by far his bat, so he reached behind him and drew it out of the opened crack in his backpack, zipping the bag shut again before strolling towards the undead creature and easily swinging his bat into it's head, nocking the now completely dead corpse to the ground

"That is SO gross, do you know that? Do you even realize how disgusting you make my bat? God..."

He grumbled a little more, grabbing a (very frequently used) cleaning cloth from the pocket of his pack and hurrying to clean off the goop that he could from his bat before shoving it back in his backpack, opening the pack a little and pressing the bat down into the bag too

God he was getting hungry...

Sure he had some food in his bag but it was mostly stuff like energy bars and peanut butter crackers, a few packs of ramen noodles, but he should probably save that for later on when it was too dark to really do much of his own foregoing

With his mind made up, he carefully readjusted his pack and started off towards the woods flanking the sides of the dirt road he had been walking on

Hopefully he could find something in the woods that was edible, he had so far managed to go all this time without killing his own food and he'd like to keep it that way, thanks

He tried to make as little noise as possible, not wanting to attract unwanted attention from the dead, and made his way through the woods

He was getting frustrated and weary, having been away from his group for too long, he didn't know how to get back to them, he had spent all this time trying but so far no luck...

He knew he shouldn't be distracted wile he was out wandering around like this, he could easily be ambushed but...

He couldn't help worrying about his dad, his friends, everyone he cared about...

"Oh my God blackberries..."

Well, atleast there was a distraction from the distraction

He hurried over towards the bush, shedding his backpack and dropping to the ground as he started grabbing at the berries, wich was decidedly not a great idea considering the thorns, wich caused a fair amount of cursing and grumbling on his part

He needed to get as many of these as he could, not just to eat now, but also to take with him

After all, berries were a rare treat to come by and it'd be stupid to just leave after only eating his fill for now

He reached for his bag after eating a few handfulls, wincing at the stickiness of the juice as he reached for the zipper

He had an empty thermos in here that he had been using as an extra water bottle but it would be better used as a berry storage device for now

Besides, there was only a little water left in the thing now, he could easily just gulp it down and fill up the container

With any luck he'd be able to have blackberries for the next two days...

And he heard a stream nearby, a great place to refill his water bottles and wash his hands of the berry juice and clean the thorn-pricks on his hands

Actually, this was a pretty nice forest too, lots of shade, a ton of plants, Stiles could probably stay out here for a wile without running into any problems, he could certainly spend the night

But...

He had to keep moving

He couldn't just camp out here for keeps, he needed to keep looking for the people he had lost

With a frustrated sigh he rubbed his hands on his pants, clearing away atleast some of the sticky berry juice and unzipping his backpack to pull out the thermos

He drank most of what was left in the container, drizzling what little else there was over his hands to get rid of some of the drying juice, and reached into the bush again

"Ouch! Son of a- why!?"

"Probably because you aren't picking blackberries correctly,"

Stiles jerked at the voice, turning immediately and easily yanking his gun out of his holster, holding it up and glaring at the man in front of him

How the hell had that guy snuck up on him like this!? He should have been paying more attention...

"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you- or rob you, I heard you squeal and figured I'd come and help,"

"Right, what a nice guy," Stiles snorted suspiciously

Although to be fair, it didn't look like he had any weapons...

Slowly, Stiles lowered his gun, swallowing tensely as he locked eyes with the stranger's

The man was beautfiull, that was for sure

Tall, dark hair, the softest looking beard ever, tan skin, muscles that rippled under his jeans and henley, and eyes that were some horrendous green/grey/brown/gold hybrid that made Stiles feel utterly inadiquit in the worst of ways

"Here, I'll show you," Pretty Eyes offered as he walked past and bent down, easily yanking berry after berry and plopping them into Stiles' thermos- not a single scratch

"How'd you get so good at this?" Stiles huffed, flexing his fingers and wincing at the little sting from his cuts and pricks

"I used to live in the country when I was a kid, we had alot of berry bushes, especially black berries, trust me you prick yourself enough you get pretty good at avoiding the thorns," He replied, standing up and handing Stiles his full thermos back

"Thanks... you out here all alone?" he asked, wincing as he took the thermos back and dropped it into his pack

"I am actually, you?"

Stiles gave a quick, tight nod, because the only thing he hated more than being alone was being REMINDED that he was alone

"Your hands are pretty messy... why don't you come with me and wash them off? I can put some medicine on them if you want,"

Stiles' eyebrows pinched, confusion racing through his mind

The guy wasn't carrying anything, it was just him, he didn't even seem to have a water bottle....

"You have camp around here or something?"

"Or something," the stranger replied with a small smirk

"Uh-huh... and let's say I agree to come back with you and borrow some medicine, what would you want in return?"

Because that was just the way it is now, everything had a price, nothing was free

"Nothing,"

But apparently this dude liked challenging the status quo

(Or being a lying liar lie-pants who lies)

"Come on man, don't play with me here, everything costs SOMETHING, I just need to know what kinda price I'm looking at this time,"

"None, I'm offering you a few dots of Neosporin, don't act like I'm suddenly giving you everything I own, I'm not asking for anything in return,"

Stiles bit the inside of his lip, nose slightly wrinkled

"And why would you offer ANYTHING to me without asking for something in return?"

"Maybe your company is enough, I mean I am out here all on my own,"

He had a point, maybe the guy was just lonely...

"Alright, fine... I'll come with you but I keep my weapons, and I have plenty so don't try anything,"

"Right, don't worry about it, I'm not going to try anything," the stranger teased with a small smirk

"Sure," Stiles snorted back, only somewhat believing him

(And by "somewhat" he meant "not really")

"If you don't trust me you don't have to follow me," the stranger replied with a shrug as he started back into the thickness of the woods

Stiles scoffed, rolling his eyes... and following after the stranger a second later

"So uh, you know, it'd go a long if I knew your name,"

"Derek," the stranger replied

"Derek Hale,"

"Stiles," he replied simply, pausing before deciding to add his last name as well

"Stilinski,"

"Nice to meet you," Derek said with a quick nod, stepping over a hedge and rounding the corner, and when Stiles followed....

"Oh my God, do you LIVE here?"

Because if he didn't then he was CRAZY

There was a freaking CABIN out here!

A real, actual CABIN with a nice-ish walkway and everything!

"Ish," Derek replied casually

(Too casually)

"'Ish'?"

"Part-time, I can't exactly hide out all the time here you know?"

That made sense he supposed, after all things like scavenging and chasing off the undead would still be necessary in a place like this....

"Come in,"

The words distracted Stiles from his thinking, causing him to stumble a little as he nodded

He swallowed a little, stepping into the cabin and feeling his jaw drop

It was so nice in here...

There was furniture and a fire place and even decoration, it felt lived in and warm and like a HOME and it was so incredible that Stiles just wanted to fall down and cry

Hell, screw the crying, he wanted to STAY

He wanted to stay forever...

"If you want you can stay and have something to eat, I'm sure black berries aren't very filling,"

NOW the guy was offering him food?

What the hell did he want from Stiles...?

"You're gonna feed me now? Dude... I know you SAID you don't want anything from me but I find that pretty hard to believe,"

"Believe it or not, that's your choice, but it's the truth," Derek frowned back

Stiles inhaled deeply, heaving a quiet sigh as his shoulders sagged

He was hungry

Derek was right, black berries weren't very filling, and he had been trying his hardest to conserve what food he had managed to bring with him a few weeks ago, so the thought of more food was just ...

"Alright, but I want to know what you're up to,"

"Isn't it possible that I just want to help?" Derek asked with a sigh as he shut the door behind them

"Not really, especially not with the world the way it is,"

"Go wash your hands in the sink, I'll get the medicine, I swear I don't want anything from you,"

Stiles still didn't believe that, but he wasn't quite up to denying the other man either, not with the promise of cold water and food and medicine....

So he obeyed, with reluctance, and hoped for the best

 

~+~

 

Apparently the cabin had running water and a working stove

He didn't really understand Derek's explanation for how that was possible (mostly because Derek hadn't really supplied one) but he was past caring at this point

The point was his hands were clean, Derek had spread a soothing balm over them and wrapped them up, and he was now enjoying a bowl of stew at the kitchen table

Maybe it was worth potentially selling his soul...

"So... are you going to tell me the full story yet?"

"I told you Stiles, I don't want anything from you,"

"Maybe not, but I feel like there's more to the story than just wanting to have lunch with a stranger,"

Derek heaved a sigh, slowly sitting down across from the other man

"You're right, there is something else, but it isn't something I want from you,"

Stiles swallowed tightly, bracing himself for more information

"Then what's the catch?"

"Have you ever heard of Safe Havens?"

Yeah, he had for a matter of fact

"Yeah, I have, what, do you know where one is?"

"Better," Derek smirked back

"I happen to be part of one,"

Seriously?

Stiles had been looking for one of these places for ages and now he just stumbles upon someone that lives there?

Someone who invites Stiles into his home- his very non-Haven home- for no apparent reason?

"Part of one... as in...?"

"My family created one, my sisters and I go out to search for people to bring back with us, this is my primary area so when I'm out late I stay here over night, the cabin works as a good way to provide shelter for travelers who need it when I'm not there too,"

"A 'shelter', you mean a lure right? To lure in people and then come by and 'offer' them a place at your sanctuary when you return? What happens if they don't want to go with you and would rather just keep the cabin?"

Derek looked a little stunned by the question, clearly not having ever thought about it before

"Well... that hasn't happened yet..."

Stiles seriously wondered how in the hell this guy was still so trusting in this world, though he supposed these "Havens", whatever they were, must be awfully sheltering...

"So you want me to come with you and be part of your sheltering program thing, right?"

Derek gave a quick nod, taking this much more seriously than Stiles was honestly

"And what proof do I have that you even ARE part of this mysterious safe haven? How do I know you're not lying to me to lure me into some kind of trap?"

"I have a walkie talkie, I could contact my sister and get her to talk to you,"

"That won't prove anything except that you aren't in on this alone, you could have the entire community on a webcam and it still wouldn't be proof that you actually have a safe place available and not a trap, I mean, how do I know that these 'Safe Havens' are really going to work in my favor? How do I know they aren't traps?"

"I guess you don't know, you'll just have to take a risk," Derek shrugged back

Stiles knew from the beginning that going to one of these places was going to be a risk, and he had been prepared to deal with it, but now that he was actually faced with it...

"How far away is it?"

"Two days walk, half a day's drive,"

"Drive? You have a car?" Stiles asked with curiously raised eyebrows

"I do,"

"Where?"

"Really? You think I'm just going to tell a stranger where my car is?"

Huh, so maybe this guy wasn't as terribly naive as Stiles first thought he was

"Fair, I have the right to retain all of my weapons at all times,"

"Fair,"

"I have a group that I got separated from, I'm not staying anywhere they aren't,"

"Then I'll help you find them, but first come back to the Haven, restock on food, we'll go out in the morning and start the search,"

"You don't even know how many people I was traveling with, how big is this place?"

"Pretty big, it's a full three-sector neighborhood plus a few extra miles of walking room, it's several acres of land surrounded by massive walls and it's barely a quarter full, you could have over a hundred people and still fit comfortably,"

"And what do you plan on doing when you inevitably run out of room?"

"Build additions?"

"What if I decide I hate it and want to leave?"

"Then you"ll be free to go, it isn't a prison Stiles, it's a safe place,"

As much as Stiles hated to admit it, these were actually pretty good answers...

"How long have you been doing this?"

"It's been fully functional for about five months, we started preparing about three months after the outbreak hit,"

"How do you know someone is really ok to invite in and isn't going to just kill you all and take your stuff?"

"We have a process, you'll understand when you see it,"

"Why?"

This one finally seemed to catch Derek off guard and he blinked, staring forward in confusion

"Why would you bother? Why do all of this? Why not just use your resources for yourself instead of inviting STRANGERS into your home? Why are you so trusting that I'm not the bad guy here?"

Derek was quiet for a moment, leaning back and glancing down

"Because... the world is ending and beginning anew, because humanity is becoming an endangered species and someone needs to step up and help make sure that it doesn't go the way of the dinosaurs, because we CAN so we SHOULD, and... because if you were a bad person you would have already tried to do something bad to me,"

Hell... Stiles hated that he was making sense....

"Fine, when do we leave?"

"Finish your stew, we can go then," Derek smirked back

And Stiles... somehow wasn't as bothered by that smirk as he usually would have been

 

~+~

 

"So what are you?"

This seemed to pull Derek's attention away from the road

A shocked, slightly concerned look on his face as he turned to stare at Stiles

"Um.... what?"

"What are you? I mean you have to be SOMETHING in order to have all the resources you have, so... what is it? A farmer? Doomsday prepper? Cult leader? I have to admit, I'm kinda hoping for farmer,"

"I- ... no, no, none of the above," Derek replied with a slight laugh, sounding strangely... relieved

"Then how was your entire family lucky enough to have the preparation needed to not only survive, but thrive and build a safe haven for others?"

"Well... with luck, I guess, I mean my family always lived a few miles away from the nearest neighborhood, we liked being away from the noise, the .. drama and everything, we liked the open space, so we have an entire preserve that's just Hale land, we heard about the infection early on and stocked up on things and it took a long time to get to us because we lived so far out, during that time we started planning and as soon as the nearest neighborhood was cleared out we started building the walls, around it and the preserve, that's our Haven, we have great scavengers and we started planting things around the preserve very early on, we grow most of our food, what we can't grow or scavenge such as fresh dairy we trade with the nearest Haven for, there's one less than an hour's drive from us owned by an old family freind, we trade with them alot,"

Stiles wasn't sure what he thought about that explanation, but something about it didn't sound quite right

They had indeed left after he was done eating, just as Derek had promised, in a Toyota that he had hidden behind the cabin

They hadn't been driving for very long now but the entire time Stiles had kept up with his questions, wanting to get as much info out of Derek as he could

And Derek, amazingly enough, actually seemed to be keeping up with him- and all of his ridiculous questions

"Why are we stopping?" Stiles asked suspiciously, frowning and jerking his head up as he noticed the car pulling to a stop... with absolutely no sight of buildings anywhere around....

"Dog," Derek answered simply

Sure enough, slowly trotting down the side of the road was a skinny, dirty looking Yellow Lab, some terrible scrap of a collar barely hanging on to her fur

"You stop for dogs too?" he asked in surprise

He had tried that before the first and last time they had run into a dog but his father had insisted they preserve their food and move on

Stiles hadn't listened, tossing the dog some beef jerky when his father wasn't looking, but the dog had run off with it instead of sticking around

Still, he had always wanted to help the dogs in this new world... it broke his heart that they were left to fend for themselves

"Humans aren't the only ones we're trying to protect," Derek shrugged back as he got out of the car

Ok, maybe, just maybe, Derek just scored himself some cool points there

The man took several slow, cautious steps towards the dog, hand outstretched gently towards the dog, who... actually started coming closer....

"Guess you haven't been separated from people that long yet, huh?" Derek mused softly as he gently took the dog by the collar and started to guide her into the car

"Wow, you really have a way with animals.... any name on that collar?"

"It's hard to tell but it looks like it might be Maisy,"

Judging by the way the dog's ears perked up, Stiles would take that as a safe bet

"And thank you, I've been around them all my life," Derek replied as he got back in the driver's seat and started the car again

"Yeah? So uh... dogs, you take them in just as pets or..?"

"Not _just_ as pets no, sometimes as pets, but if they can do another job that's always good, and dogs are usefull for alot of things, alerting us to danger, guarding people, sniffing out food and water sources and even ammo, herding horses and other animals, the list goes on... cats are good too, they keep birds and rodents away from crops and the pantry,"

Stiles nodded slowly as he took all of that in, staring forward and simply... staying quiet for a moment as he let it settle

"So, the dogs and cats have jobs... will I have one too, or am I just a pet?" he teased

"I believe that remains to be seen,"

That answer was... needlessly weird....

Stiles didn't know why the guy couldn't just give him a more straight-forward answer, it was strange, almost unnerving...

He exhaled slowly, letting his head lean against the window and taking a slow, deep breath, eyes starting to droop closed

He didn't even realize he had passed out until he was waking up, God only knows how long later

 

~+~

 

"Stiles?"

Stiles gasped and jerked awake, heart pounding and one hand on his gun instinctively as he stared towards the voice

Ah... just Derek....

He must have fallen asleep, odd, considering he was usually pretty great at staying awake when he didn't have some safety measure near him....

He usually couldn't fall asleep unless he had someone he felt safe with standing watch or with some kind of booby trap in place to wake him if danger possibly approached

How utterly strange...

"We're here,"

Slowly, the younger man started to sit up straight, staring out the windsheild and taking a slow, deep breath

The place seemed oddly... normal...

It looked like just a neighborhood, nothing special

It was quiet too, Stiles didn't even see anyone else around...

"Are you ok?"

He blinked, glancing back up at Derek and giving a quick nod as he hurried to step out of the car, watching Derek open the back door to let Maisy out as well

The dog wandered around between them a little, but didn't seem to go too far atleast

"Well well, and here I thought you'd come back empty-handed again, but you've got two with you this time,"

Stiles jumped, turning on his heel and glaring daggers to whoever had just spoken

How these people kept sneaking up on him was a mystery, but he was starting to worry that he was getting soft...

The woman behind him was almost as tall as Derek, with hair just as dark as his and a smirk that clearly stated she knew something he didn't

"You're never going to let last month go, are you?" Derek huffed

"Not anytime soon," the woman said with a grin

Derek just rolled his eyes, clearly unimpressed with the answer

"Stiles this is my sister Laura, Laura this is Stiles, and... that's Maisy,"

Laura gave the slightest twinge of a smile, leaning closer and offering her hand out politely

And Stiles, because he knew better than to reject manners in this state of the world, accepted and gave her hand a polite shake

"Pleasure to meet you Stiles," she said simply, turning back to Derek with an extra tilt to her smirk

"I'n going to take Maisy to Isaac's, get her some food and water, maybe a bath, you should take Stiles to Mom,"

"I plan to,"

And somehow that was all it took before Laura was walking away with the dog and leaving Derek and Stiles to their own devices

"Why are we going to see your mother?"

"Remember how I said there was a process to us figuring out if someone was ok or not?"

"Yeah?"

"She's the process,"

 

~+~

 

"So you're the one my son has brought back,"

The woman sitting in the swirvy chair in at the big desk in the big office was apparently Derek's mother- and the family resemblance was evident

Long black hair, soft eyes, and the same deadly smirk that her daughter wore

_Absolutely perfect_

"How did you know Derek had brought anyone back?"

The question, for what it's worth, seemed to catch her atleast a little off guard

"I mean according to Laura it isn't every day that Derek brings anyone back, but you clearly seem to be expecting me, so how did you know?"

"Laura called me over the walkie talkie and told me that Derek had a guest,"

There was only one problem with that little explanation:

Laura hadn't had a walkie talkie

Not that Stiles had seen anyway

Sure it was possible that she picked one up elsewhere or something but it was far more likely, considering the circumstances, that the Hale matriarch was lying

(Or that was Stiles' paranoia kicking in)

"I'm Talia Hale, pleased to meet you..."

"Stiles," he offered, once more taking the hand that was extended to him

"Stiles, have you been alone for long?"

"I'm not alone, I have a group, I was just... separated from them,"

"Oh? How many are there?"

"Fourteen,"

"Really? So including you then that would be fifteen, quite a large group, you must really be skilled to have made it through together for almost two years,"

"Not really, there were others,"

The group was... complicated

It had started out with twelve, but of the original twelve there were only six left, the others had come and gone throughout the last two years

Some stayed, some left, some died

It was complicated

"I'm sorry for your losses,"

Stiles gave a loose shrug, because it wasn't worth trying to say more

"Are any of the people with you family?"

"They're all family, but if you're referring to blood relations only then yeah, my dad but.... but that's it for blood,"

Talia gave a slow nod, as if his answer was somehow telling, and moved on to her next question

"'Do you plan to look for them?"

"Yeah, I mean I have been for the last two weeks, but Derek said we'd go out first thing in the morning and start looking again,"

Wich was an embellishment, not a lie, but it was fine, the woman seemed to believe him anyway as she reached into the drawer of her desk, and pulled out a simple key with a little red plastic keytag on it- no number or anything, just... blank

"This is the key to our private residence, being that you plan to leave first thing in the morning there's not much sense in getting you settled tonight- though, it's a shame you won't be staying for waffles in the morning, you're welcome to stay in the guest room, my daughter Cora is waiting outside to show you where the house is, please feel free to get something to eat, take a shower, do anything you need to make yourself at home,"

Stiles replied with a short "Thank you" and a nod as he took the key, glancing up at Derek for... affirmation? Approval? He wasn't sure...

"I'll be at the house soon," the other man said, nodding politely towards Stiles as the traveler headed out of the office and shut the door behind him before starting his journey down the hall to exit the building

"Figures I finally find a nice place and it's full of freaking weirdos..."

 

~+~

 

And things got weirder too

These places apparently had running water and electricity

The shower was nice, nicer than anything he'd felt in what was probably months, and a good three or four layers of soap finally managed to eat away at all of the dirt and grime he had caked over his skin and hair

Looking in the mirror was surreal, not because he had forgotten what he looked like under the debris but because he hadn't seen a mirror in ... atleast six months

Wich wasn't ENTIRELY accidental, he hated who he was, he hated himself and he hated his reflection, so he tried to avoid seeing himself when he could and apparently it had worked pretty well until now

"Wow, I've never met anyone who's taken to the 'make yourself at home' thing as quickly or seriously as you,"

Stiles glanced up from the books he was searching through, meeting Derek's gaze from across the room

"Yeah well... you did offer,"

"I know,"

He had found the Hale family library, apparently, and decided to do a little digging wile the evening was still young

"Do you guys have any maps?"

"Yeah, you're in luck too, usually we keep them in Mom's office but Cora had them last and she never puts anything back where it belongs, just let me find a local one for you,"

Stiles just gave a quiet nod and followed Derek towards a desk in the corner where a bunch of maps laid in some disordered mess

He sifted through a few of the pages himself, staring at the pappers in disinterest, until he came across an odd looking peice

It was a map of the country with... color coding...

From a quick glance, it looked like California was yellow, Florida was blue, Washington was green, Virginia seemed to be some kind of red-black combination, wich was odd, the only other state that seemed to have two colors was a purple and black one up north, but he didn't get the opportunity to see where exactly it was as he soon had another map laying on top of it, forced to look up and meet Derek's warm green eyes

"Local map," he repeated

"What's with the coded one underneath it?"

"Nothing, it's just something my mom uses for statistics,"

"Ok, so what does yellow mean? California is yellow, right?"

Derek didn't seem very pleased with Stiles' question, given that he didn't answer it

"Find what you need to find, I'll be in the kitchen,"

And just like that, he left

Ofcourse Stiles tried to figure out the color-coded map himself but there was no mini guide on it anywhere, not even on the back, so he was left with absolutely no information

In the end, after spending an hour searching for another map like it, he finally gave up and just took the local one upstairs with him in the hopes of getting a better grasp on where they were and where they needed to go

 

~+~

 

The Hales had managed to convince him to stay for waffles

Mostly because Derek said he wasn't leaving until he ate and promised a car full of supplies if Stiles waited for him

"Are we taking this one? It's the biggest but it won't hold them all,"

The van could hold about eight, it looked like, not nearly enough for all of his group but maybe it would work if he only came across a few at a time...

"We're taking one of these,"

When Stiles turned around and saw a bunch of four-seaters...

Well, to say he was shocked and disappointed was like saying a tiger had teeth

"What the hell? One of these isn't going to hold even half of my group!"

"Calm down," Derek said softly, setting a few cans of gasoline down on the ground

"We're not going to be bringing anyone back, not ourselves anyway, when we find your group we're going to call back here on the walkie talkie and get someone to drive one- or two- of the bigger cars to our location, we can't keep one of our only large cars to ourselves for an undetermined amount of time, what if, in the time it takes for us to find your group, someone else finds a huge lot of supplies or a family who needs help but has no car to help them? This is always how we use the bigger cars Stiles- always,"

He hated that rule, but... even Stiles had to admit that it made sense

"So what car are we taking then?" he asked with a small frown

"Any one you want, as long as it isn't bigger than four seats,"

Stiles blinked in surprise, taking a slow step towards the cars and taking them in

There was a Cadillac, a Pontiac, a Volvo...

He paused, mouth opening slightly as his eyes landed on one in particular

One that looked familiar... nostalgic... like something he had before all of this started...

"I want the Jeep,"

 

~+~

 

"So you were living with your group in an abandoned hospital? For how long?"

Stiles thought about that for a moment, eyebrows pinching and nose wrinkling in thought

"Mmm... three... maybe four months? I'm not great with telling time in this world,"

"Understandable," Derek said with a slight nod

"I wish we had stayed there longer... it was a good place, just to us too, we had managed to clear out alot of the zombies so we really had something going there, but... the dead invaded one morning, I'm not sure why, what drew them there... we all got separated in our attempts to get out of there..."

"I see... did you have a designated meeting spot?"

"Yeah," Stiles muttered with a sigh, licking his lips and leaning back, clearly not happy with the way this conversation was going

"I went there already, stayed for four days but... no one else showed up, so finally on the fifth day I decided to just leave a note and try finding them myself, you can see how well that's gone,"

Derek saw alright, and he was concerned

"I don't know what happened, but I'm going to find out, even if it kills me,"

Derek understood loyalty

He understood the kind of driving, clawing loyalty that would make him give up his life for the people he cared about

But he also was not a person who could just let someone sacrifice themselves when he could prevent it

He knew if they didn't find Stiles' group- or at the very least, find out what HAPPENED to Stiles' group- soon, he was going to have to call it off and return Stiles to the Haven, maybe send someone else out looking for a little wile

He didn't want to give up, but he couldn't watch Stiles work himself to death either

He would have to stop Stiles sometime, he knew that, the chances of finding everyone he cared about were... slim... with a group that big, and the way Stiles described it made it sound as if they had all fractioned into smaller groups

He'd have to call it quits at some point, Derek just hoped it would be later rather than sooner....

 

~+~

 

Three days into the search, there was a call on the walkie talkie

"You found someone?"

_"Yeah,"_

Laura's voice on the walkie talkie was clear and kind of oddly... happy

"Who is it!? What's their name!?" Stiles shouted over Derek's shoulder, forcing the other man to flinch and try to wiggle a little closer to the car door- not that it did much good

_"Her name is Allison, I'll let you talk to her,"_

"Oh my God... Allison... she's ok!!"

Derek felt something soft and warm settle in his chest, a small smile gracing his lips as the stranger's voice blared over the device

_"Stiles?"_

"Allison!! Allison you're ok! Oh my God where's everyone else!? Where are YOU?! Oh my God Ally oh my God I'm so happy to hear your voice!!"

One down out of fourteen

They weren't good odds but they were better than Derek honestly thought they'd be, and Stiles seemed to be rejuvenated by hearing his freind's voice

_"I'm glad to hear you're ok too, I'm a six day walk from the meeting place, Stiles I tried to get there, I tried so hard but Lydia and I got stuck on a path south of there, by the time we finally made it no one was there, we waited for three days but no luck, I hear you made your way alright though,"_

"'Yeah... yeah I did, I waited four days but- ... wait... you said Lydia was with you? Is she... is she there now? Where is she?"

_"We got separated, a few days ago we were making our way across the bridge over Carson Highway and half of it caved in right after I got across, she was on the other side, we had to split up and I don't know where she is now, we were going to meet over at Applebrooke, there should be a gas station there, that's where we were planning,"_

"Applebrooke huh? That's... not near here,"

They had been going towards the hospital, and Applebrooke was practically in the opposite direction...

_"Laura said she'd take me to meet Lydia, we said we'd wait as long as three days for eachother there and Applebrooke is about a half day's drive from where we are now,"_

Stiles nodded, swallowing tightly and sniffing quietly

"That... that's great, thank Laura for me ok? Derek and I are heading back to the hospital, we're going to go south from there, everyone should've tried to get to the meeting spot so... we'll try to cover that area... I don't guess you have any idea where anyone else might've ended up huh?"

_"Not a clue, but I wish I did, I have to go now, but I'll see you soon enough, I promise, stay safe Stiles,"_

"Yeah... yeah, you stay safe too Allison,"

He slowly handed the walkie back to Derek, taking a breath and leaning against the window, staring out at the passing road as Derek talked logistics with his sister

They were already nearly there, between shortcuts Derek knew and Stiles' insistence that they sleep in shifts so that they could make better time, rarely stopping for anything, they had managed to cut down a week and a half's journey on foot to only about four days of driving

It was kind of incredible, really

He had started this journey feeling pretty rotten, but now, things were actually starting to look up

 

~+~

 

"I have some bad news,"

So much for looking up

"We aren't going to have enough gas to get us much further, I brought enough for a week's trip but I wasn't counting on driving through most of the night, as it is now, we only have another can to get us through,"

"Funny, because I'm looking at distinctly more than one can," Stiles huffed back

"That's for getting us BACK to the Haven, we can't just drive until we have nothing left,"

Stiles hated to admit that Derek might be right but...

Derek was entirely right

"One can huh?" Stiles muttered back, leaning against the car and staring in distaste at the can of gasoline

"We should have just enough to get us to the hospital, maybe a little less... we always picked up gasoline when we could in case we ever got a car, it should still be there,"

Stopping at the hospital wasn't part of the plan, they were going to go PAST the hospital, given the fact that the hospital was surrounded by the dead

But... they had to do whatever they had to do, and if that meant fighting through the dead to get to the gasoline then that's what they would have to do

"You sure?"

Stiles took in a deep breath, shoulders even as he stared forward, out the windsheild

"Yeah, positive,"

Derek gave a quick nod, taking the lid off of the can and starting to fill up the tank

 

~+~

 

A day later, the two find themselves several yards outside of the hospital, staring at a herd of dead meandering around aimlessly, likely in search of food

"Here, put these on,"

Stiles glanced up, watching in surprise as Derek shrugged off his jacket and yanked off his shirt

His mouth went dry, heart beating a little bit faster as he took in the other man's sweat sheened bare chest, the way his muscles rippled and his chest heaved

Stiles' hands were sweaty and cold with nerves as he stared at him, because... hell.. he hadn't bothered to notice someone like _this_ since before the world ended, it had been almost two years since he last lusted over anyone and he had kind of forgotten how to handle it

He felt a little guilty too, here he was about to go into a massively dangerous plan of action to get a step closer to finding his family and he was lusting after some guy that he had only just started trusting

It was all kinds of stupid and reckless and horribly selfish but he just... couldn't help it...

"Ok, and why would I do that?" he asked skeptically

Derek took a deep breath, gripping the steering weel a little bit tighter and glancing down in silence

"I need to be honest with you, just... just give me a chance to be, ok?"

Suddenly the trust that Stiles had just started to have in this guy dropped into his stomach and burned, throat closed up tightly and hands freezing now, trembling, breath shaking, moving to rest a hand over his gun

"What.. the hell, do you need to be honest about?" he breathed

"I'm immune,"

Of all the things Stiles might have been expecting him to say... that was certainly not on the list

"...What?"

"I'm immune, the dead don't even notice me, you know how you can put their blood and guts on your skin, cover your scent, and they don't know the difference? Well... it's like that with me, but no coverage needed, they just don't bother, I thought maybe if I gave you my clothes... it might cloak you too,"

Stiles ran his tongue against his top row of teeth, sucking in a breath, fingers tapping against his gun but.. not pulling it out of the holster

Not yet

"Immune?" he asked slowly

"You're asking me ... to believe that you're immune? And what, you didn't tell me this in the beginning because you thought it'd be a bad pitch?"

"I didn't think you'd believe me, and just think about it for a minute, would you have? Believed someone immune just happened to have a safe haven and invited you along for the ride? I will walk straight into that herd if that's what you need as proof,"

Stiles clicked his tongue, drawing his gun and pressing it against Derek's forehead, cocking his head to the side

"Or I could just shoot you and see for myself if you turn, unless you're immune to bullets too,"

"If you did that the chances of your surviving family members getting into the Haven are cut down to zero, you know that,"

Unfortunately... Derek was right, but that didn't make Stiles put the gun down, not yet

"How are you immune? Is it just you? Is it your entire family? How do you know for sure? Were you bitten?"

"I told you, they don't pay attention to me so no I wasn't bitten, yes my entire family is immune, Stiles-"

"How? How. Are you. Immune?"

Stiles would take any answer

"I just am", "I don't know", "I was bitten by a radioactive spider"...

Anything..

It wasn't about WHAT he answered, but HOW

Stiles needed to believe him, he needed to know that he wasn't being lied to

"I'm not human,"

...

Wait, what?

"When we met, you mentioned you'd heard rumors about Havens, that the people who ran them were .. farmers or cult leaders or whatever... did you ever hear the rumors that we weren't human?"

"You mean like... werewolves and vampires and stuff? Yeah, always just thought it was a stupid myth,"

"It wasn't,"

Stiles wrinkled his nose

"So you're what then?"

"A werewolf,"

"And I'm Mary Queen Of Scotts, see how we can all say things that aren't necessarily true? Now what's your proof?"

Derek frowned, giving a sigh

"Put the gun down and I'll show you,"

Stiles hesitated for a few moments, but slowly obeyed, glaring at Derek as he waited

The man let out a low sigh, holding his hand up and flicking his fingers out... to reveal _claws_

Freaking **_CLAWS_**!!!

"Believe me now?"

Mouth still open, Stiles gave a tiny, timid nod and sucked in a deep breath

So apparently werewolves are a thing

"You... wah...."

"Werewolf, I know," Derek shrugged back

Stiles swallowed, forcing himself to gain composure and inhaling deeply through his nose

"Ok, werewolf, so... so you think um... wearing your clothes will help?"

"It might, it's a theory, I wouldn't go in unarmed though,"

"Right, no, not ... not doing that, not at all, so uh... does everyone at the Haven know or...?"

"No, maybe about seventy-five percent,"

"Were you planning to tell me?"

"I was, just... when I felt like you could handle it, when you calmed down a little, I didn't want to put too much on you at once,"

He supposed that made sense, and given how well Stiles had proven that he's one to stab first and ask questions later probably just made Derek's idea of waiting an even smarter one...

"Why do only seventy-five percent of the people at Haven know?"

"The others wouldn't be able to handle it, we have to be carefull about who we tell, the dead may not be able to kill us but the living still can,"

"And so... you're immune to this? This ... disease, just... flat out immune? Are all werewolves like that?"

"Yes, this disease seems to only affect humans, not supernaturals, so... supernatural communities started up these Havens in an attempt to help people, to preserve the human race, and/or to gain recruits of their own species,"

"And why did you open your's?"

"Both, we want to preserve the human race yes, but our goal is to help people, and if someone could be a werewolf and wanted to be, in order to be immune to this disease, we gladly offer our teeth, we'd offer it to you, if you'd like,"

"I bet you say that to all the humans," he snorted sarcastically

"No, actually, of the humans who know, we only ask about sixty percent, so less than half of the total of all humans we take in,"

Now this actually surprised Stiles, causing him to blink in confusion

"Why so few?"

"Being a werewolf is nothing to take lightly, it isn't just a cure for the disease, it would change your entire life and not all humans are cut out for it, to even survive the bite at all you'd have to be an incredibly strong person, not to mention actually living life as a werewolf, you would need to be immensely strong for that,"

"And you think I'm that strong?" he asked, almost skeptically

"I know that you are, you've already proved that,"

Stiles was quiet for a few moments, licking his lip and looking down at the floorboards

"Can I think about it?"

"Ofcourse," Derek replied with a nod and a small smile

He cleared his throat, looking down and rubbing the back of his neck

"So um, you got a weapon of choice?" he asked as he opened the car door

Derek simply showed Stiles his claws again, wich... ok, made sense

They were reusable, sustainable, and there was no risk if he got too close so...

"What about you?" Derek replied, getting out of the car and following Stiles towards the back of the jeep

"My trusty bat here is my favorite, but I'll use just about anything," the human shrugged back, grabbing his baseball bat from the back and tossing it over his shoulder as he started to rummage through the supplies in search of easy-to-carry weapons

"Just... do me a favor ok? Don't ever wrap barbed wire around it,"

Stiles stared at him in confusion, tilting his head as he shoved a dagger into the sheath strapped to his leg

"Ok.... that actually sounds kinda awesome but ok, whatever you say,"

Derek just gave his head a slow shake, shutting the back door once Stiles was geared up and taking a shaking breath as he started nudging the other man slowly towards the hospital entrance

There was a huge herd of dead in front of the entrance that they would have to fight through, but it would be a small price to play in return for getting the gasoline....

Hopefully....

The familiar snarling, hissing, grunting sounds of the dead was starting to get closer and closer, so Stiles readied his bat, taking a deep breath as he swung forward and nocked one in the head

He tried to pay attention to his own stock, to not let it bother him that for the first time since all of this started he was watching someone go into a herd unarmed, because it...

It was scary

Even knowing Derek was immune, it was still scary

So he just tried not to look, tried to focus, taking a deep breath and swinging his bat again as he nocked a jaw clean off of another

His bat moved again and again, high and low and straight-forward, never stopping, never taking a break, just kept going and going, until...

Suddenly there seemed to be no more left...

He turned his attention towards Derek, staring at him curiously and feeling a slight wave of anxiety wash over him at the sight before him

Derek was fine, apparently, but he was absolutely soaked in blood...

"None of it's mine," he assured him quietly, flicking his wrists free of the excess from his hands and nodding towards the hospital entrance

There was still a first floor full of corpses that needed exterminating, and they didn't have time to stand around worrying about eachother

They were both fine, no need for concern

So Stiles took a breath, nodding his head once and heading for the double doors with Derek right behind him

 

~+~

 

By the time the first floor was clear and they had loaded all of the gasoline into the car- plus a few boxes of supplies, wich really tested the boundaries of what a single jeep could handle- it was nearly sundown, and Derek insisted they take the night off to sleep somewhere other than the backseat of a car

Stiles was initially against it but was worn down eventually

"Want a coke? They're warm but it's better than nothing I figure,"

"Nothing wrong with that, did you know that coke was actually made before refrigeration was a thing, so it was made to be consumed warm?"

Stiles paused, a bottle of coke in his hand and a flabbergasted look on his face

"Yeah... yeah I.. I knew that, I can't believe YOU knew that, people don't usually know that,"

Derek shrugged back, offering a slight smile to him

"Did you know that in ASL tugging on your left ear used to be slang for saying you're gay?"

It wasn't like Stiles was trying to one-up the guy or anything...

"I didn't,"

But it was kinda nice to offer up some new information once in a wile

(He definitely just wanted to one-up the guy)

"Do you know what the ASL slang is for being bisexual?"

Ah.. crap...

"Unfortunately no,"

"That's really a shame, I would have liked to know in case I ever run into anyone who's deaf,"

It took longer than it should have- several seconds really- before Stiles actually caught onto that, a small smirk starting to curl over his lips as he grabbed a bottle of coke for himself

"You too huh?"

Derek just shrugged again- gee, how helpfull- and opened his bottle of coke

"Did you know that AC/DC was once a slang term used for bisexuality because it represented two different electrical currents?"

Stiles' mouth fell open, eyes widening and a slight huff pressing out of his lungs

"You're just trying to outdo me now aren't you?"

"Maybe," Derek smirked back

And that.... that was kind of hideously attractive, to be honest

He cleared his throat, licking his lips and leaning back as he took a long swig of the drink

"I guess you were always pretty good at those bar trivia contests huh?" Stiles finally asked, once the "Too amazed to speak" thing passed

"Not really, I never attended, never really liked the bar scene,"

"Oh really?"

"Too crowded, too many... noises, smells... too many people getting drunk and getting handsy... besides, werewolves can't get drunk so-"

"Seriously?"

Derek glanced up at him, partly surprised at Stiles' outburst, partly amused it seemed

"We're immune to inhibitors," he provided, clearly trying not to laugh

Because _ofcourse_ they were

"Wow, lucky you," Stiles snorted back, eyes flicking over to a crate of food and taking a step forward, deciding now was probably as good a time as any to break into the little snack-pack puddings they still had

"You think so? Laura always thought it was a curse, Erica agrees with her, Isaac says she's not missing anything, and Boyd has no opinion on it,"

"Other betas I take it?" Stiles guessed

"Bitten, yeah, the first ones of Haven, you should meet them when we get back, I bet you'd like them,"

Stiles gave a slight shrug, tossing a pudding to Derek and starting to look for the boxes of plastic silverware they had scavenged- the Hales had _real_ silverware at Haven, Stiles distantly wondered if he should bother sneaking out a few of these boxes into their supplies though-

"I agree with Isaac, for what it's worth, getting drunk is definitely overrated,"

"Experience? You don't look old enough to drink,"

"Ok first of all, I'm twenty-three buddy, second of all, don't you think we're past the point where underage drinking really matters?"

"Good point... so, experience?" he asked again, peeling the lid off of his pudding cup

"Yeah, some, I used to drink beer sometimes before... all of this... never really liked it but I thought hey, this is what all the cool kids do, why not? Never touched hard liquor though... not until about .. two, maybe three months after all of this started, I'd lost my freind Heather, at the time we were staying at a motel we found, I broke into the mini bar one night and got ahold of a few bottles, I thought that would help, thought it would make things better, after all my dad had started drinking when my mom died- before all this- and he seemed to like it, but... it didn't go so well, besides just feeling terrible, it didn't numb the pain of Heather's death, not really, it just turned that pain into anger and I went into the woods in the hopes of butchering some zombies, but ofcourse in my sloppy state I probably would've just gotten myself killed, incidentally that was the night we met Lydia and Allison, talk about bad first impressions,"

He gave a quiet huff, tossing Derek a spoon before moving to sit down next to him and peeling the lid off of his own pudding cup

"I haven't touched booze since, can't imagine how my dad did it all those years,"

"Who knows why people do what they do?" Derek shrugged back

Stiles gave a slight nod, he could relate to that question...

"So uh.. betas huh? How do those happen?"

"Bitten and turned by the Alpha, my mom,"

"Oh, cool, I mean.. cool that your mom is the Alpha, that's neat... so.. what about your dad?"

"He's a nurse, the only medical professional we have at the Haven as a matter of fact,"

"Seriously? You know... my best freind's mom is a nurse too, I bet you could really use the help huh? For um, you know, your human members, or werewolves too if werewolves even need medicine,"

"Stiles, you don't have to sell me on your family, I'll do anything I can to find them, promise,"

Stiles gave the tiniest smile in return, seeming to understand and taking a bite of his pudding

Just as Stiles was about to add something else, the static of Derek's walkie-talkie sounded, distracting them both as the werewolf pulled the device free from his belt

"This is Derek,"

 _"Hey,"_ Laura's voice came in through the speaker

_"I need to talk to you about Dad, do you have a second?"_

Derek swallowed tightly, that was their signal for "We need to be alone to talk about something sensitive"...

That couldn't be good

"Um, hang on a second, I have to take this privately,"

Stiles blinked, nodding simply and taking another bite of his pudding as Derek hurried out into the hall, out of hearing range- or atleast... hopefully

"Laura, what's wrong?"

_"Stiles can't hear you right?"_

"Pretty sure he can't, why?"

_"I found out some unfortunate information about his friend Allison,"_

"Meaning... what?"

_"Meaning.. Argent,"_

Derek went pale, he felt absolutely ill and could feel chills breaking out all over his skin

"You don't mean-"

_"She's an Argent Derek, she told me herself,"_

He swallowed tightly, staring down at the ground before taking a deep breath and speaking again

"What are you going to do?"

_"Leave, as soon as she falls asleep,"_

"Laura wait, you can"t just leave her out there all alone,"

_"Why not?! Derek you remember what happened the last time we let an Argent into our home don't you?"_

"Ofcourse I do but... but she's just a teenager isn't she? Look, she might not even know about hunting ok? What's your proof that she does?"

_"Are you hearing yourself!? Argent, Derek! ARGENT!"_

"I know I know but... listen could you... could you PLEASE just do me the favor of getting to know if she even knows about hunting or not? Please? I don't want to leave an innocent girl to die, or lose Stiles' trust in me for virtually no reason,"

For a long, long moment, Laura was absolutely silent, and then-

_"'Fine, but if she knows... I'll kill her myself,"_

Derek have a sigh, nodding as his shoulders sagged

"Sounds fair,"

_"I swear to God.... you and your bleeding heart little brother...."_

"I know, I know,"

_"Alright... I'll call you in the morning and let you know, stay safe Derek,"_

"You too Laura,"

He heaved another sigh, hooking the walkie talkie on his belt and swallowing as he headed back into the main room where Stiles was

"Hey you, what was that all about?" Stiles asked curiously

"Nothing, just.. talking about something my dad is doing, it's a long story,"

Stiles seemed hesitant, but ultimately shrugged and reached into the box behind him again

"You want a fruit cup? I have mandarin oranges~~"

He gave a slight laugh, grinning and sitting down across from him once more

"Sure, toss it over here,"

 

~+~

 

When Derek woke up the next morning, he smelled ... s'mores...?

He rubbed the back of his neck, confusion sunk into his bones as he rolled out of the cot he had managed to sleep in last night and made his way back to the room that they were originally in yesterday, seeing Stiles hunched over a small fire with a pan, a plate full of s'mores next to him

"Hey! Morning! I made 'smores~~!"

"I can see that," Derek said slowly, sitting down across from the other man

"I figured it's the closest we can get to a breakfast with such limited supplies,"

"Uh-huh.... you sure seem to be in a good mood," he noted slowly as he picked up a s'more

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess I am,"

"Is there a reason for that?" Derek asked with a small smirk, taking a bite of his s'more- and it was a little bit amazing how good it was, all things considered...

"I guess I'm just... hopefull, for the first time in a really long time... we're almost to the meeting spot so we can see if anyone else has been there, we have plenty of supplies to keep driving for a wile longer, and Laura found Allison... that's... I mean I know it's just one person but it's SOMEONE, Derek ... Derek it's SOMEONE, do you know what that means? That means there's HOPE, if Allison is still alive and well out there then maybe everybody else is too, you know?"

The taste in Derek's mouth turned suddenly bitter, stomach winding into a tight ball as the memory of his conversation with Laura flashed before him

That Argent girl may be a nuisance for him but... for Stiles she was the embodiment of hope...

If Laura left her out there and Stiles found out about it....

At just about that moment, the static from his walkie talkie went off, Laura's voice ringing through the device a second later

_"Derek, you there?"_

"Yeah, hang on Laura," he replied, glancing up at Stiles

"Go on, I'll be here with more s'mores when you get back," the human replied with a small smile

"Thanks," Derek replied with a slight smile, getting up from the floor and heading back into the hallway

"Go on Laura," he said into the device

_"I talked to the Argent girl, she's as oblivious as they come,"_

"You're sure?"

_"Positive, I was dropping hints like CRAZY, no hunter- hell, no one who even BEGINS to know anything about the supernatural world- would just skate past them,"_

"So... so she's out of the loop, good... now what?"

_"Now... nothing, I guess, I'm still going to be cautious, if she shows even one sign of hunter knowledge-"_

"I know... I know,"

_"And if there are any other Argents alive, any that are hunters, there will be no mercy,"_

"I know, I wouldn't have it any other way,"

They said their quick farewells, giving Derek the opportunity to truly breathe and let some of his anxiety drain off before heading back into the room Stiles was currently occupying

"Everything ok?" the human asked, glancing up curiously

Derek took another breath, smiling sincerely and heading to sit down across from him

"Yeah, everything is perfectly fine,"

 

~+~

 

"Sooo... what did that color-coded map mean in your library?"

"You're still on that huh?"

Stiles shrugged, glancing at Derek with raised eyebrows

They were almost to the meeting spot now, it seemed like as good a time as any to pry about it

"I told you already, it's just used for statistics," Derek replied

"Seriously? Are you STILL going to go with that?"

"I am because it's true,"

Stiles was quiet for a moment, a grin coming to his lips

"Ok then, what KIND of statistics?"

If the look on Derek's face said anything... Stiles had just cracked the code to getting him to talk

"Statistics ... on wich species has the most land in each state,"

"Yeah? So then what does yellow mean?"

"Yellow is werewolves,"

"Really? So then yellow is a werewolf state?" Stiles asked with pleasant surprise

"You could call it that,"

"Huh... so then what's red?"

"Vampires,"

"Blue?"

"Merfolk,"

"What about black?"

Derek was quiet for a moment, looking visibly tense and.... sad? Frustrated? Just... not well....

"Black means that there's still a heavy human presence, to the point that whatever species the area belongs to is hanging back a bit,"

"Well... why? I mean why divide it up into territories to begin with anyway? Why take it from humans?" Stiles frowned

"It isn't like that, we divide the territories so that everything is even, so that there's no risk of one single species having so much rule that they get the entire country, and to make sure that most species get something of a home turf, so their land can't be violated by someone else, and we aren't taking it from humans,"

"Well that's what it sounds like,"

"It isn't, we're taking larger control because the human race is going extinct, you're all running around in chaos and the only hope there is of preserving the species is reconstructing society and creating some ... preventative measures against the dead,"

"And humans can't do that on their own?"

"You're acting like we're the enemy," Derek said with a deep frown

"Well you're talking like you are, you're talking like the supernatural is... freaking taking over in place of humans or something!"

"Taking over? Stiles we've been around for just as long as- if not longer than- humans have and we've lived our lives in the shadows all this time out of fear of human cruelty, we're finally creating a society and instead of destroying humans we just want to HELP them, because God knows humans won't help themselves,"

Stiles took a deep breath, shoulders heaving and head hanging as he looked down

"Sorry... just... I guess I'm a little defensive, I don't want to be a _pet_.. ya' know? I mean I feel like you guys think humans are an endangered species, and I don't want to be that, you know? And I mean, I get that it's ironic, humans always did that with zoos and stuff but... I don't want to be a panda Derek,"

"You aren't a panda Stiles, but humans ARE becoming endangered, and... against all sensibility we DO tend to like humans and want to keep them around, but humanity is on a fast track to extinction and as much as you don't want to be a panda we don't want to see you go the way of the dinosaurs, so... forgive me for having some bad terminology but we're just trying to help, we're trying to make the world work again,"

"I get it," Stiles said with a tired sigh, biting his lip and leaning his head back

"I get it ... just as long as there are no captive breeding programs or anything," he teased, grinning as he glanced over at Derek

"Oh look, we're here," Derek replied immediately, parking the car and turning the engine off

"Wah- ... wait a second, you didn't answer me!!"

Derek stepped out of the car and Stiles stumbled after, ready to interrogate him up and down but stopping suddenly when he noticed something

There seemed to be fresh footprints in the dirt leading up to the little cabin they called their meeting spot...

Fresh footprints...

He rushed forward, slamming into the door and rushing to unlock it

And once the door was open, he could feel his breath stall, tears coming to his eyes as he stood stock still in the doorway

"D-DAD!!!"

"Stiles!"

The human rushed forward, hurrying to wrap his arms around the older man and hugging as tightly as he could

Derek stepped into the cabin right after, a soft smile resting on his face as his heart warmed

Knowing Stiles had his father back... it was the best thing that could have happened

And the older man didn't seem to be alone either, there was an older woman there as well, a girl around Stiles' age, and another man several years older than her

"Dad... Dad you're .... you're ok... you're ok... how.. what..." he paused, looking up and finally taking in the other three

"KIRA!!" he squealed, rushing forward and slamming into the girl, who simply laughed pleasantly and returned his hug

"Parrish! Mrs. McCall!"

Admittedly it was kind of amusing- if not a little lonely- watching the exchange of hugs and pleasantries

"Um... Derek, this... this is my dad- John-, Kira, Parrish, and Melissa.. guys this is... this is Derek, he's been helping me the last few days, he's... his mom runs one of those.. Safe Haven things, we're gonna go back with him but.. is... is anybody else here? Is... do you...?"

"Just us Kiddo,"

Derek could see the look on Stiles' face as he deflated from the news, shoulders sagging and sadness etched into his features

"Oh," he croaked quietly, swallowing and slowly stepping back towards Derek

"What about you? Do you know where anyone else is?" Kira asked quietly

"Allison," Stiles breathed, licking his lips

"Derek's sister found Allison but... but that's it, I was here in the beginning you know, I mean like... just a few days after .... where have you guys been?"

"It's a bit of a long story, you should sit," Melissa said quietly

That didn't sound good... but Stiles slowly sat down anyway, swallowing tightly as she started telling the story

"We were four days out when we started, half way here your father ended up breaking his ankle, from what I can tell it's just a hairline fracture but it's still a break, so Kira went back to the hospital to retreive the supplies we needed,"

"But... the hospital was swarmed, how did you-"

"I was a rock climber," Kira interrupted, "I scaled the building,"

He supposed that made sense...

"It took her two days to get the supplies and another two to get back, by the time we got here it had been just over a week, we found your note pinned to the door and your father insisted that we wait, he knew you would be back, besides, with your father's ankle the way it is we would have had a hard time leaving anyway,"

Stiles nodded slowly, taking a breath as he sat down next to his father, a small smile on his face as he leaned against his father's shoulder and gave him another hug

Derek, in the mean time, took a step towards the door and frowned, staring at the note still attached to the door

There was something strange about this, he just couldn't quite pin-point what it was...

"Derek is going to call someone to get a bigger car," Stiles said suddenly, drawing the wolf's attention away from the note on the door

"I'll have Cora come with a van, should take her a few days to get here," Derek agreed with a small shrug

"Once she gets here she'll take you guys back to Haven, Derek and I will head out and get back to searching for the others," Stiles added

"Excuse me son... but who died and made you the boss?" John asked with a frown and raised eyebrows

"No one, but Derek is the one who's doing all of this for us, he's the only representative of the Haven, so it should be that what he says goes,"

He knew that they wouldn't argue to that- especially his dad, he just hoped that Derek would have his back on this...

"Stiles is right,"

Looks like his gamble paid off

"The last thing we need is for everyone to get separated again- more separated than you already are atleast, and the best way to prevent that is to keep everyone at the Haven,"

"Except for Stiles, ofcourse," John frowned

"I need someone to identify who's a member of your group, to lead me to them, help me find clues, Stiles has been doing it so far so why change it now? And bringing along more than one person just isn't logical, it takes more supplies and slows us down,"

"You don't think having an extra person around for security is a good idea? I mean... I'm the best fighter we have," Kira said softly

"We'll be fine," Derek assured her with an affirmative nod

"Hey Der? Why don't we go get some supplies out of the car, I'm sure everybody could use it,"

Derek turned to Stiles and gave a quick nod, hurrying to say goodbye as they headed back outside

"Thanks for backing me up in there," Stiles said with a soft sigh as he opened up the jeep

"Really, it's no problem, I'm happy to not have anyone else coming along anyway, I meant what I said, it's better if they wait at the Haven," Derek shrugged back

"Thank Heavens for that," Stiles sighed, dragging a package of water out of the jeep and setting it down

"I just... I'm so freaking relieved we found my dad... God... I missed them by just a hair, if I had only stayed a few more days-"

"You wouldn't have met me and you'd be stuck here with an injured party with little ability to move forward and no idea how to find the rest of your group,"

Alright, fair...

"Still, I just can't believe in all this time no one else has been her, and it really looks like no one has, I mean, they got here within a few days of me, and nothing was really disturbed so there couldn't have been anyone else it sounds like,"

Derek paused suddenly, abruptly setting down the giant box of energy bars he had been getting ready to take in and turning his attention more towards Stiles

"Wait a minute, how long did you stay here again?"

"What? Um... four days, why-"

"And how long did it take for you to get here?"

"Three..."

"Stiles that's an entire week,"

"And your point?"

"It took your father and his company about eight days to get here- nine at the MOST- are you telling me that Allison just came here and immediately turned around and left in a single day? That makes no sense, and even if it did, why wouldn't she mention the note you left?"

Derek could see just by the look on his face that he had struck a nerve, now hopefully it would stay stricken

"What are you implying? That she lied? Why would she do that?"

"I don't know, but Stiles even you have to admit that's awfully weird...."

Yeah, ok, so it did sound a little weird but....

"Alright so it's a little weird, what are you suggesting? That she lied to me?"

"I don't know, I'm just suggesting that maybe we investigate a little bit further, that's all, I can contact her on the walkie talkie and let you talk to her if you want,"

Stiles was quiet, taking that into consideration and licking his lips

He wanted to say no, to ignore all of this but...

"It IS weird...." he muttered quietly

Without needing any kind of further confirmation, Derek took his walkie talkie out out of the holster, clicking it on and giving Stiles one more hair of a chance to back out before speaking into it

"Hey Laura, do you have Allison with you?"

_"As a matter of fact I do, why?"_

"Stiles just needs to ask her a quick question, that's all,"

_"Um... sure, yeah, she's right here,"_

Derek handed him the walkie talkie, a look of concern etched into his face as the other male took it and heaved a deep breath

 _"Stiles?"_ came Allison's voice, sounding confused and a little worried- though not nearly as worried as Stiles felt, that was for sure

"Hey Allison, listen um... you know that note I left in the cabin? Did you leave it pinned to the table where you found it? I just want to make sure it isn't going to blow away or anything if.. if someone comes back and opens the door you know?"

_"Oh... yeah, yeah I left it on the table, it was still there when I left,"_

"Oh good, thanks for letting me know,"

He licked his lips, not even bothering to say goodbye as he hurried to hand the walkie talkie back to Derek

And Derek... Derek could practically _see_ Stiles' heart break...

Allison was calling for Stiles, snapping Derek out of his trance and pulling his attention back to the walkie talkie

"Actually he just stepped away, sorry.. could I speak to Laura again?"

It wasn't quite a lie, Stiles had already started stalking off and Derek was torn between keeping his voice calm and hurrying after the other man

In the end he decided to let Stiles go- he had his gun and the area seemed clear enough, it wouldn't be that dangerous... right?

He obviously needed to cool off, and Derek needed to address this matter privately with his sister anyway

_"Derek? Are you alone?"_

"Yeah... are you?"

_"Yeah.... Derek, she's lying..."_

"I know,"

_"Does Stiles-"_

"Yeah, he knows too,"

There was a moment of silence, Laura likely trying to put things together as much as Derek was

_"Why would she lie?"_

"I don't know, but she hasn't been to the cabin at all, was she lying the first time she talked to Stiles? When she said she had been with Lydia?"

_"No idea, I had left to give her some privacy, wich I see has come back to bite me now,"_

"Great..." Derek groaned, dragging a hand down his face and heaving a loud sigh

_"Derek... she isn't a hunter, she doesn't know about us, I know that..."_

"I believe you but... but maybe she was put up to it, do you know if she has any living relatives?"

_"No, she won't talk about it so I assumed she doesn't but ... maybe that isn't why she doesn't want to talk... what do we do now?"_

"I don't know, I'm afraid that she's leading you into a trap, if she lied about coming to the meeting spot how do we know she isn't lying about Lydia? How do we know she isn't leading you to Gerard? Or Victoria? Or _worse_?"

_"We don't, but are you prepared to tell Stiles that he won't be seeing her again? You seem so fond of him Derek.... I don't want you to get hurt,"_

Honestly...

No, no Derek wasn't prepared to tell Stiles that

He wasn't prepared to agree to a kill order that he didn't fully support

"Take her straight home, no stops, no meetings, take her to Mom, we'll let our Alpha decide what to do from here,"

 

~+~

 

Stiles let out a trembling breath, drawing the dagger out of his sheath and jamming it into the nearest tree

He yanked it out and then stabbed it again

And again and again and again-

"Don't you think it'd be better to HUG the tree than stab it?"

Stiles turned around quickly, biting down hard on his lip

He didn't want to cry, he didn't want to scream, he didn't want to attract attention to his pain but-...

Derek was in his personal space in a second, both arms wrapped around him and hugging him tightly

"I know... I know it hurts... I know..."

Stiles hadn't even realized he was hugging Derek back until the werewolf spoke, a quiet, strangled sob of frustration managing to sneak out of his throat

"Why did she lie?" he breathed

"Why... why did she have to do this? Why did she betray us!?"

"Stiles... we don't know that yet,"

"Yes we do Derek! She lied to me! She freaking lied for no reason, what reason could there be for that!?"

Derek was quiet, lowering his head a bit more and taking in a deep breath

"Stiles... you need to sit down,"

Those were the exact words he _didn't_ want to hear

"What?" he asked, pulling away immediately and staring at Derek with a horrendous look of fear on his face

"Derek... Derek what? What is it? What's wrong?"

"Just... sit, I have something I need to tell you about the Argents,"

 

~+~

 

"So... the Argents are hunters?"

Derek gave a quick, silent nod

"And... they ... they kill werewolves for no reason?"

"Well, it doesn't exactly work like that, there's supposed to be a code- or there was- but... the Argents are somewhat notorious for being code breakers, they kill indiscriminately, and..."

"And?" Stiles pushed, having virtually no patience for waiting

"And... they have something against my family, before all of this happened one of the Argents... killed my girlfreind, and my uncle, she had tried to get my entire family but... luckily my sister found out beforehand and managed to put a stop to it,"

Stiles looked.... heart-broken.... moreso than he had hearing that Allison had been lying

"I... I'm so sorry," he said quietly, reaching out slowly, hesitantly, and very carefully setting a hand on Derek's shoulder

"I'm sorry you've had to go through that, no one deserves to be persecuted for what they are, well... except zombies,"

Derek gave a slight twitch of a smile, nodding and heaving a slow breath

"Thank you... I appreciate that, but as you can probably tell not everyone agrees with you, some people, even now, think that our kind is a bigger threat than the dead,"

"That's crazy!" Stiles shouted with an angry huff, eyes narrowed in frustration

"I'm glad you think so, but not everyone does, and the Argents.... are definitely not of your opinion,"

"Well you shouldn't have to worry about too many of them, they're all dead except for Allison and Chris," Stiles huffed back, chewing his lip and letting out a slow exhale

"I never did like most of them... glad to see it wasn't just me being crazy,"

"Not at all," he said, lips twitching up into the slightest smirk

Stiles himself gave a tiny, ghost of a smile, but it was only a flicker, a breif moment, before returning to the solemn, anxious frown that he had worn earlier

"So... you think Allison is a hunter, and that's why she's doing this?"

"No, actually, Laura is quite sure that she ISN'T a hunter," Derek replied simply, wich drew a shocked look from the other man as he jerked his head up to stare at Derek

"Seriously? Then... what is it? I mean, why do you think she lied?"

"We have no idea, if I'm being honest, it could be a trap, her father may have set her up but we don't know anything for sure, it's all just speculation,"

"Then... what's going to happen to her? What are you going to do?"

"We don't know yet, Laura is going to drive her straight home and hand her over to my mom to handle, the decision will be the Alpha's,"

"Straight- ... but what about Lydia!?"

All it took was one disheartened glance from Derek to answer that question

"You... think she was lying about Lydia... don't you?"

"I think it's atleast possible,"

He heaved a loud, long sigh, hanging his head and nodding slowly

"Yeah.... yeah you're probably right," Stiles muttered back

"But we aren't going to stop searching," Derek assured him, reaching out and gently placing a hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze

"I promise Stiles, we're going to keep looking,"

Stiles gave a tense smile, nodding once and setting a hand over the werewolf's

"Yeah... thanks Derek,"

The words were sincere, but they were also somewhat hollow- somewhat hopeless

 

~+~

 

An hour before morning light was supposed to shine through the windows of the cabin, Stiles was writing another note

_"Don't look for me, I'll be back later"_

It was simple, he just hoped it would also be effective

He just ... needed to leave

He just needed to go for a wile, get out of here and ...

He needed to make up for Allison, he needed to find someone, do this on his own, and have Derek take the others to the Haven where they'd be safe

But mostly, he needed to find Allison and figure out what the hell was going on

So he was going to leave, and he just hoped that he would get far enough to make a dent before Derek inevitably found out about it

He moved slowly, opening the door as silently as possible and slipping out

 

~+~

 

At first, when Derek sensed Stiles awake and heard his heartbeat growing more and more distant, he just assumed that the other man was leaving to take a bathroom trip, but he finally woke up when the human's heartbeat was completely out of range

Jerking up in bed, he looked around, hoping for any sign of the other man- and that's when he saw the note...

He hurried to rip it off of the table, cursing and rushing out of the cabin

That idiot was going to get himself killed out there, atleast... if Derek didn't stop him first

He _prayed_ he would be able to stop him first...

 

~+~

 

Stiles had tried to travel light, for what it was worth

He had only packed a small bag, mostly carrying a couple of refillable water bottles and food, small, light things like energy bars and packs of ramen noodles

He didn't know how long he would be gone but he always tried to prepare for the longest

Weapon wise he had two guns, ammo, and a few blades strapped to him, and his trusty bat in his backpack

Hopefully all of that would be enough...

He didn't imagine there was alot he could find in just a few days, he figured he'd be out here for a number of weeks at the very least, so he hoped that he would be able to make it for a wile without having to go back for supplies...

Not that he believed there would be any supplies to go back _to_

If things worked out truly in his favor then Derek would take the others back to Haven and only come after him after that

That would take most of their supplies with them...

It didn't matter, his mission right now was just to find his family, whatever happened to him in the mean time...

It didn't matter

He had been out here for just over an hour now, he felt like he was getting close to something...

He gave out a quiet huff, brushing away some branches from the space in front of him as he stepped into a large, open clearing

And just up ahead, there was what looked like a hotel...

He must have gone the wrong direction or something...

He should turn around, he knew that, after all the hotel was absolutely crawling with the dead, but there was some odd... pull... towards the hotel

Something that didn't quite want him to leave yet

He took a few cautious steps closer, staring at the hotel for a long moment as he tried to put the peices together in his head

He took another step, eyebrows pinched as he finally noticed what was so off

There were sheets hanging out of several of the windows, wich wasn't so unusual, most large buildings like hotels and hospitals had sheets hanging out the windows with messages on them from people who had been there before... but it was what was ON the sheets that struck him by surprise

 _ **"GO TIMBER WOLVES"**_ was written on each and every sheet...

It was a sign....

A sign for him....

Without a shred of hesitation, he took his bat out and started running forward, grabbing the nearest corpse and smashing it over the head before dragging it off into a more secluded area of the woods, glad that most of the dead were swarmed around the entrance of the hotel, only a few were wandering around this close to the clearing

He grabbed a blade from his sheath, dragging it up the center of the zombie and slicing the corpse open

"This is so freaking gross... somebody'd better be there," he grumbled to himself, swallowing tightly before digging his hands into the guts of the body below him

He took a breath, spreading the rotted blood and guts over his body and trying his hardest not to shudder or.. puke... or anything

He hated this, but it was the best way to get through the massive heard of walking corpses

He wouldn't be able to fight them all off on his own without a risk, so the best thing he could do was simply blend in and fight as he went

It was disgusting, but it was necessary and it was better than the alternative

He finally stood up, nose wrinkled in disgust at himself, before gripping his bat tighter and starting off towards the herd

 

~+~

 

Derek was ready to start screaming

He probably would have by now, in fact, if it weren't for the fact that he didn't want to draw attention...

Stiles had an hour ahead of him and with all of the dead in this area it was getting harder and harder to find his scent

How was he supposed to find the idiot if he couldn't even find his scent!?

With a disgruntled huff, he took another few uncertain steps towards the clearing in front of him

He could see a hotel up ahead, a huge herd of zombies laid outside the entrance-

.... Wait.....

 _Laid_?

Why were they all laid out?

Clearly they were slain by someone- recently too, judging by the fact that the guts on the ground still seemed fresh

(Well, as fresh as rotted innards could be that is)

Someone had just been here.... and the clearing had the tiniest, faintest hint of Stiles' scent there...

He must have taken them out and gone inside...

Cursing under his breath, Derek hurried inside the hotel and gritted his teeth

He was going to have to check every floor in order to find him, the scent of the dead was simply overwelming, most likely Stiles was covered in blood and guts by now...

"Where the hell are you Stiles...?"

 

~+~

 

Four freaking floors

Stiles had been walking around bashing in heads for four. freaking. FLOORS.

He was getting close to giving up, but he wouldn't- not just yet...

He just had to push himself a little bit further, that was all

Somebody was here, someone he loved, he knew it... he knew it....

He swung his bat forward, taking out the next zombie that came his way, and easily kicked the corpse aside to create a better pathway

"Stiles!!"

Crap...

"STILES!!!!"

"Idiot! Would you shut up!?" Stiles hissed, spinning around on his heel to glare at Derek in frustration

"You're going to call the dead," he snapped

Why the hell did Derek have to be here?

Why couldn't he have just waited back at the cabin like Stiles thought he would!?

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Derek hissed as he marched forward, hurrying to grab Stiles' arm and yank him closer

Stiles, however, wasn't having it, and quickly jerked back, growling and glaring at the other man

"What the hell are YOU doing here? I specifically said not to follow me,"

"Is THAT seriously your argument? You ran off Stiles! What was I supposed to do, leave you!?"

"YES!"

Derek sighed loudly, rolling his eyes so hard his entire body twitched

"Stiles, that's ridiculous, and what the hell are you doing in here anyway?"

"Someone is here, someone I love,"

"Stiles-"

"Seriously! Look! The sheets ok? The sheets have 'Go Timber Wolves' on them, that's .. a long time ago my group decided to use that as a code to signal eachother, Timber Wolves were the Beacon Hills High mascot and enough of us knew that to recognize it so... you can sense it right? There are people here aren't there? Derek... please..."

Derek sighed lowly, closing his eyes and letting himself concentrate for a few moments, letting himself really listen...

He could hear heartbeats, three of them, human, from the floor above them

Stiles was right...

"There are three upstairs, fifth floor, we'll go get them, but after that you're coming back with me, DON'T argue, please Stiles... just come back with me, stop this suicide mission nonsense, I promise we'll go looking for the rest of your family, I swear it, but you can't keep running off on your own like this,"

"Why the hell do you care? Don't tell me it's just because I'm human,"

"It isn't," Derek replied simply, taking a step closer and looking down, unsure of how to proceed

But he couldn't screw this up, if he did he might risk losing any cooperation that Stiles was considering giving him...

"I like you Stiles, ok? I like you alot, and I don't want to see you get hurt, if you die... if you die, it's going to break my heart, so... that's why,"

Stiles was quiet for a moment, shuffling a step closer before slowly wrapping an arm around Derek's shoulders, eyes flicking up to meet Derek's

"How selfish of you," he said sarcastically, cupping Derek's face and leaning in, giving him a slow, almost hesitant kiss, heart pounding with each passing second as he felt the werewolf wrap his arms around him in return, letting the kiss sink deeper, warmer, growing more passionate with each breath until finally pulling away and gently bumping their foreheads together

"I like you too, by the way," Stiles said with a quiet breath, eliciting a slight chuckle from Derek as the wolf closed his eyes

"After that kiss, I should certainly hope so,"

 

~+~

 

Stiles swallowed tightly, reaching out and nocking loudly on the door of the hotel room in front of him

"We know you're in there!"

Not a second after he called out, the door swung open, a stunned face greeting them

"Stiles?"

"Scott!!"

Derek stepped back, a slight smile gracing his face as he watched the two freinds embrace

They were clearly close, both of them seeming to be near tears as they squeezed eachother, holding on for dear life

"I take it this is one of your's," Derek mused softly

"Yeah," Stiles breathed, hugging the other man a little tighter before turning towards Derek

"Scott, he's ... he's practically my brother,"

Scott seemed to be in agreement, holding onto Stiles tightly as he finally turned his attention towards Derek

"Stiles... who's this?"

"Oh um... this is Derek, my boyfreind, it's a long story," Stiles shrugged back

Long story indeed...

"I can relate... we've got a pretty long story to tell you too," Scott said with a small sigh, stepping aside and allowing Stiles and Derek to step into the room he had been holed up in before

"Malia! Lydia!!" Stiles screamed suddenly, breaking away and ambushing the girls by the door

"Lydia," Derek echoed quietly

So Allison had been lying about that too...

"What happened to you guys?" Stiles breathed

"We were attacked by some gang of thugs, they took everything, kidnapped us-"

"We managed to get away after about three days, I don't know what they wanted but..."

Stiles shook his head, rubbing his eyes miserably and moving over to sit on the edge of the bed, waving Derek to follow him

"Ok, these thugs, can you describe what happened?"

"Yeah," Scott said with a quick nod

"We were on our way to the meeting spot when we were ambushed, nocked out and tossed in a truck, we don't know where they planned on taking us but when we woke up we were still in the truck bed, they'd taken all of our weapons and everything, food... all of it, everything we managed to take when the hospital was invaded, Lydia managed to sneak back one of her nives and cut us free, we jumped out of the truck wile it was moving and Malia nearly concussed herself, we walked back, managed to get this far but it took about a week, we managed to get into the hotel by covering ourselves in dead guts but after resting here for about a day the one nife we had ended up falling out the window, we've been keeping ourselves locked in here with what little food and water we found downstairs wile we try to come up with a plan, we can't seem to get any weapons to last long enough to get further than the stairs to the fourth floor,"

"God that's horrible," Stiles breathed, raking his fingers through his hair

It was a terrifying thought, if that was what had prevented Scott and the girls from getting to the meeting spot...

He was afraid to find out what might be preventing the others from having gotten there

"It was, but we're ok atleast," Lydia offered quietly

"What about everyone else? Did you find them?" Malia asked immediately

"Some, not all," Stiles said quietly, not wanting to look up and see the distressed looks on their faces

"Kira, Parrish, Melissa, and my dad are at the meeting spot, Derek's sister is with Allison, we're all heading back to one of the Havens, Derek's mom runs it, when everyone is there he and I will head back out to look for the others,"

"My mom is ok? And Kira? And Allison?" Scott breathed, clearly relieved and anxious all at once

"They're fine, Scotty, they're fine,"

There was no need to bring up the Allison thing right now, it was unnecessary stress in a minefeild full of stress

"Stiles cleared out the levels below us, plus the entryway, it should be safe now, we need to get going, we're wasting daylight,"

"Even though it's morning?" Malia grumbled back, though she stepped towards the door anyway, likely eager to get out of the tiny room

"Be that as it may, the sooner we get out of here the better, is there still food at the meeting spot?" Lydia asked briskly, heading for the door

"Plenty, especially since Derek and I brought more supplies," Stiles said with a quick nod

"Good- and Stiles? The second we get out of this place, I want ALL of the details," the strawberry-blonde winked, smirking as she disappeared down the hallway

"Yeah," Stiles sighed softly, taking Derek's hand and smiling up at him as they followed Scott out of the room

"I think I can do that,"

 

~+~

 

"You really did all this yourself?"

Admittedly, Lydia's surprise kind of made Stiles preen, it was nice to know that she was impressed by the massive kill count laying on the ground outside of the hospital

"I did, all alone, completely by myself," he replied with a proud smirk

"No wonder you're so filthy," she huffed back

That was... not at all the response he had been hoping for, and he kind of deflated from hearing it

"You may think you're funny but you really, really aren't,"

"Oh, I really, really am," Lydia smirked back

Sadly he didn't have time to retort, given that Derek's walkie talkie went off- and it wasn't good news

_"Derek!! Derek!!!"_

"Laura?" the wolf frowned as he answered the distress call, but he barely had his finger off of the button before Laura's voice blared through the speaker again

_"She took off!"_

Those words... those three words were like a lead ball in the pits of both Stiles and Derek's stomachs, anxiety pouring in like water out of a faucet

"What do you mean she took off?"

_"I mean she took off! She took the car and left!"_

"What!?"

_"I went to the river to refill our water bottles and she took the car wile I was gone!"_

"Can you catch up with her?"

_"I'm not sure, maybe... but I'm wondering if I **should** ,"_

"You think it might be a trap?"

_"It might be, I mean... why else would she run like that? She's either luring me or hiding from me,"_

"Or both, maybe she's hoping you won't follow and the trap is a failsafe,"

_"Maybe... but a trap is still a trap,"_

"Agreed, don't worry about it for now ok? Just... come meet me at the cabin I'm currently at, we'll figure out what to do from here,"

Unfortunately that was as far as the conversation managed to get before the sound of a car door slamming jerked Derek out of concentration, forcing him to look up and curse as he caught Stiles starting the jeep

He tried to shout for Stiles to stop but it didn't do any good, the human had already taken off before he could even put the walkie talkie down

_"Derek!! Derek what's wrong!?"_

The werewolf heaved a deep breath, shoulders sagging and head drooping with frustration

"He took off..."

 

~+~

 

Stiles was upset- to put it absolutely mildly

He was... more than upset, he was outraged, furious, and _agonized_ over this

The thing is that it takes alot to earn Stiles' loyalty, but once you do, it's undying and eternal

The Hales had earned that, especially Derek, and the thought that there was someone doing this to them- especially Allison, someone he knew and loved- it just angered him to no end

Especially if Derek's suspicions were right, if this was a trap...

To think that Allison was leading them into some kind of trap...

It just made him SICK!

And ofcourse he was loyal to Allison, always, but this...

The Hales had his loyalties too, and Allison was CLEARLY in the wrong no matter what her motivations were, Stiles wasn't about to play the favorites game

Allison had lied to them- ALL of them, and about Lydia no less, he was as personally offended for himself as he was for the Hales

Besides, this was his fault anyway

The Hales were trying to help him find his family and now that they were succeeding it was putting them in danger

It was Stiles' responsibility to clean this up, come hell or high water, and he was going to

Even if he had to drive all day and night, it would be worth it

He was going to fix this...

He was going to fix this

 

~+~

 

Apparently Stiles was smarter about this than Derek originally anticipated

He had picked the best time imaginable to run off, given that Derek was now forced into the uncomfortable position of having to take the others back to the cabin- _on foot_

The only good thing he could find about this was that Laura had been taking Allison back in the direction of the Haven- wich is what made her run in the first place, presumably- so there was no way that Stiles could possibly avoid both of them

If he managed to outrun Derek- wich was possible- then he certainly wouldn't manage to somehow avoid Laura...

Still, Derek was far from above trying to track him down himself, and he took off in full wolf form the minute he got the others back safely

Stiles was going to get caught by one of the Hale siblings sooner or later

And Derek just hoped, for all their sakes, that it was sooner....

 

~+~

 

Stiles had probably been driving for two days now

Rosebrooke was fairly far from the meeting spot but the day and a half worth of driving that Laura had done atleast HELPED

Stiles had to be getting close, he thought so... he HOPED so....

He swallowed tightly, letting out a shuddering breath as he blinked a little bit harder than usual

He needed to stay awake, this was exactly the LAST time he needed to be falling asleep

He swallowed hard again, reaching absently for the energy drink he kept in the cup holder

He had been more than surprised and relieved to have found the small box of them in their supplies during his last stop, that was for sure

The moment he reached for it though- the exact, very moment- he caught a glimpse of something in the windsheild, screaming and stomping on the breaks as the car skidded to a sudden halt

Stiles jerked, letting out a scream as he slammed forward, only saved from going through the windsheild by his seatbelt, his heart pounding relentlessly and stomach churning with anxiety as he stared forward, eyes locked on the huge black wolf sitting in the middle of the road

He opened the door, sliding out of the jeep and growling as he started towards the wolf

Because yes, Stiles was tired and frustrated enough to go confronting wild animals

Luckily (or, depending on your perspective, unluckily) for him though, the wolf sitting in front of his car was not, in fact, a wild animal at all

A cloud of white fog illuminated the creature, and Stiles watched in awe, breath caught in his throat, as the creature shapeshifted in front of him, raising from the ground in the shape of-

"Derek?"

The werewolf turned around, a deep scowl on his face as he took a few steps towards the other man

"What the HELL were you thinking Stiles!?"

Really, Stiles should have been expecting that one

"Driving out here all alone- you don't know what you're getting into! Or where you're going! And have you even slept in the last two days!?"

Stiles didn't hang his head- he didn't, he just looked down at the ground

"I know what I'm doing Derek, I'm not a little kid! I survived this long without you, and went through plenty of phases of doing it alone, I don't need you to babysit me Derek!"

"It isn't babysitting you, it's being responsible, we don't know what Allison is planning and you're jumping into this completely unprepared! I'm not going to argue about this, I'm coming with you,"

Stiles' mouth fell open, eyes wide

That... wasn't how he had expected that argument to go

"But... but you're a werewolf and a werewolf is exactly what she's expecting! What if YOU fall into her trap!?"

"I won't, she's expecting one werewolf, not two and a human,"

Stiles blinked, swallowing a little bit better and turning to stare at the front of the road- where another wolf, this one dark brownish grey- was walking their way

The wolf took a few more steps before raising up to take human form, revealing that she was definitely Laura

"You need to sleep, take the backseat, Derek and I will take turns driving,"

"Alright," Stiles sighed, rubbing his eyes and taking a step forward

"Just... one thing," he added suddenly

"Would you two PLEASE get some clothes on!?"

 

~+~

 

"We shouldn't stay up much longer, we have a long day tommorrow,"

Allison gave a slow nod, sitting down next to her father and staring at the fire before them

"You ok Kiddo?"

"Yeah I just... I was just thinking, that's all, where are we going?"

"Virginia,"

Allison glanced up at her father in surprise, confusion starting to cross her face

"Virginia? But... that's so far away, are you sure that's where we should go?"

"Positive, Virginia is the last place on the map that's completely safe for us,"

Allison had joined her father earlier that day, and almost immediately...

Well, the werewolf had come out of the bag

"Are we really just going to leave everyone here? All of our freinds... our family... everyone...?"

"Allison, they'll be fine, we need to do what's best for us, **I** need to do what's best for **you** , and Virginia is just that,"

She wasn't sure if she believed that, in fact, she wasn't sure if she was comfortable with any of this

"If the Hales are as bad as you say we are then how can we just ... leave everyone without even warning them? Stiles especially, he seems... intrigued... by that Derek guy," she noted quietly, looking down and staring into the bonfire as she spoke

"Stiles will be fine, he's alot smarter than you seem to think, I'm sure if anyone will catch onto what the Hales are doing it'll be him and he can warn the others, have a little faith, but if you're really THAT worried about him... we're going by the meeting spot on our way to Virginia, we'll drop off a note in the cabin for Stiles, leave it in code, he's a smart kid Allison, he'll figure it out,"

_"Aww I appreciate that, thanks for the confidence Argent,"_

Allison's eyes went wide as she heard a gun click behind her head, watching her father jump to grab his gun before a stranger had come up behind him and pressed a gun to the back of his head as well

 _"Traitor,"_ Allison breathed

"I'm not the traitor Allison, that would be you," Stiles replied in a cold, even tone behind her

"What the hell do you call this then!? I thought we were freinds Stiles! Family! You don't hold a gun to the back of your family's head!"

"And you don't LIE to your family about someone they love who's missing! I found Lydia, by the way, and I know EXACTLY what you were doing,"

"Look, I'm sorry for lying to you, but I didn't have any choice! I had to get to my dad, you HAVE to know how that feels! Can you say you wouldn't have done the same thing?!"

"I wouldn't have lied to my freind for no reason! Why the hell did you lie in the first place huh? Why couldn't you trust Laura? Or ME for that matter!?"

"It was never you I didn't trust Stiles! It's the Hales! You don't understand, they're bad people, they're manipulating you!"

"Don't," Stiles warned harshly

"Don't insult me by saying I would be-"

"It's an easy mistake to make if you don't know that they're monsters," Chris interrupted

"Hey! Shut up! You only think they're monsters because they're different from you are, you're the ones who are monsters... killing people just because they're different from you... especially when there are bigger threats, ACTUAL threats out there!"

"You don't know who you're defending Stiles! You may think you understand but you don't, you-"

"What? Don't know they're werewolves?"

There was a long, tense moment of silence that followed that outburst, the Argents sharing the same look of shock... but for different reasons

"What?" Allison breathed quietly, staring at her father in .. shock and pain most likely

"Huh, looks like I'm not the only one who was lied to here," Stiles bit

Chris gritted his teeth, anger boiling under his skin

"You... you stupid child!! Why can't you see what's going on!? They're MONSTERS!"

"They're PEOPLE!" Stiles argued back with an angry shout

"You told me they were cannibals," Allison hissed

This apparently took Derek by so much surprise that his gun wobbled, staring up at Stiles with some kind of pained, horrified look on his face

_"What!?"_

"What else was I supposed to tell you Allison?! That werewolves are real!? They're monsters! They kill people!"

"No... no that would be you," Stiles growled back, taking a deep, shaking breath and gritting his teeth

"I'm just sorry you had to get caught up in this Allison..."

"Stiles... I-"

The hunter's daughter was interrupted by a loud, horrendous scream, jerking them all out of their current mindsets and forcing chills down their spines

"Laura!!" Derek shouted

Without another moment the werewolf sprinted out of the bushes behind them, heading towards the scream

Derek and Stiles locked eyes, giving mutual nods of acknowledgement to eachother before cracking the butts of their guns against the humans' heads, successfully forcing them to fall unconscious

 

~+~

 

"You just happened to have zip-ties?" Chris grumbled

"Laura did, Allison may have taken the car but she didn't take all of the supplies," Stiles replied casually, stretching out a little in the seat of the jeep

Derek and Laura had left probably a half hour ago and Chris and Allison had just started coming to a few minutes ago

"You are making a HORRIBLE mistake, these... MONSTERS are going to kill you!"

"Dude, we live in a world where the dead are coming back to life and killing most of the human race, werewolves are the least of our worries,"

"They're our BIGGEST worry, this is the best time if ever there was one for them to take over and destroy human society!"

"Human society IS destroyed, and the only people helping us from COMPLETELY annihilating ourselves are the supernatural! Do you know what's ACTUALLY going on in Virginia!? It isn't good!"

Chris opened his mouth to say something- and Stiles was gearing up to give a rebuttal- but neither of them got the chance as Allison spoke first

"You lied to me, Dad,"

"Allison I had to... I couldn't let them fill your minds with this.. CRAP like they did to Stiles!"

"Hey!" Stiles huffed

"You didn't have to go through all of this! You could have told me the truth! But now... now I don't know what to believe,"

The car suddenly went silent, tense and suffocating, and Stiles hoped that Derek and Laura would hurry up and be back soon

"How is Lydia?" Allison asked after a few, long moments of quiet

"She's alright, been through some stuff, I might've gotten to her sooner if I had known she was not, in fact, with you,"

Stiles was not going to feel guilty about that guilt-trip

No, he was not

But Allison looked down as if her entire world had just collapsed- and maybe it kind of _had_

And Stiles found himself reluctantly turning in his seat to talk to her or... comfort her or... do .. SOMETHING..

When suddenly he heard the door open and someone move to sit in the seat next to him

Assuming it was Derek, he heaved a sigh and turned back towards the person, only to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun, held up by a complete stranger

"Get outta the car," he snarled

Stiles' heart was racing a mile a minute, slowly holding his hands up in surrender and never once taking his eyes off of the guy, he carefully placed one hand on the door handle and pulled, pushing the car door open and slowly eeking out

He waited, car door still open, for the assailant to get out as well, and the second he looked down to open the car door, Stiles had his own gun out and shot the stranger straight through the back of the head

Allison screamed in horror, Stiles swallowed tightly, and the stranger bled all over the nice seats

Licking his lips, Stiles put his gun back in the holster and took a step forward...

Only to feel another gun press against the back of his head

Ofcourse, ofcourse...

Why had he thought the creep would've been alone?

"Turn around, _slowly_ ," came a woman's voice

Stiles knew better than to argue or wise off in this position, so he did as she said, staring in frustration at the face of a woman he had never met before

"Good... that's good...."

The next thing he knew something had hit him over the back of the head, and the last thing he heard as his mind went black was Allison screaming again

 

~+~

 

Slowly- as in, achingly, snail's place slowly- Stiles opened his eyes

His heart was hammering against his chest at roughly the same speed as the throbbing pain in his head and he let out a loud groan as he forced his vision to focus

He could see the fire blurrily, flames eating up wood and crackling into the sky in front of him, but that was as much as he could get from the scene for now

"Stiles!" came a wisper-scream from beside him, followed by a sharp nudge

Stiles swallowed again, attempting to move his arms, only to find them bound behind his back, a zip-tie around his wrists

So apparently his captors had found his stuff...

Great.....

"Stiles!" the voice repeated

This time he tried to focus on that instead, slowly turning his head and in-taking the blurry blob of brown hair and pale skin

"Al-... Allison?" he rasped out

She nodded hurriedly, letting out a sigh of releif and letting herself relax

"Thank God you're alright..."

"You call this 'alright'? I'd hate to see what you call injured," Stiles grumbled back

Now that his vision was starting to adjust again, he could get some sense of where they were

It looked like they were at the same campsite they were at earlier, wich was no surprise, the jeep was only a few yards away from here and it's a nice little spot all things considered

The next thing he knew his vision was blocked by a sea of black fabric, and when he squinted his eyes and looked up, he was met with the same face as earlier

"Do you know why you're here?" she asked slowly, calmly- a little too calmly in his opinion

"Because a bunch of dirt-bags kidnapped us?" Stiles guessed

" _Errrrk!_ Wrong answer, want to try again?"

"Actually if you could just TELL us that would be great Alex,"

The woman didn't seem pleased by his answer, but it didn't seem like she was going to say no either

"Your freinds MASSACRED the rest of our group,"

Stiles' eyes narrowed, nose wrinkling as he glared at the woman- wich wasn't GREAT to do when his head was pounding like this but.. well...

"Ok... define 'freinds', 'massacred', and 'rest of our group',"

"Your freinds- the bearded one and the long-haired woman- RIPPED. TO SHREDS. six of our people!!" she shouted

So Derek and Laura had to kill some people huh?

"Where are they now?" Stiles asked slowly

"I don't know, that's why I came here to get YOU! They not only killed our people, but they also took our prey and ran!"

"Took your prey?" Chris repeated with a frown

"Yes... our prey.... our six preys... six of our members to guard six of our preys, your two killed our six and took the six preys,"

"Alright, this is getting ... this is getting disturbing, Argent, you REALLY thought the HALES were worse than THESE idiots?" Stiles spat

Immediately he felt a sharp sting in his cheek, yelping as he stared up at the angry woman in front of him as she drew back her hand

"QUIET! Your freinds took what was our's... so we'll take you, we'll have to make it quick, to make up for lost time, now..."

Stiles swallowed tensely as he watched the woman pick up an axe, twirling it between her fingers as she stepped between them

"Now... who shall I chop up first?"

"WHAT were you saying about cannibals?" Stiles grumbled as he glared to his other side at Chris

The woman began to wistle, continuing to twirl as she walked the small path between the three of them

Her boots scuffed as back and forth against the dirt, and his eyes traveled down to stare at them

And that's when he noticed it...

The dagger strapped to her ankle....

"That's Malia's dagger... you were the ones who robbed my freinds!!"

The woman paused suddenly, nose wrinkling as she took a step closer

"So.... you knew the three who got away as well?" she tsked quietly, shaking her head slowly

"Then you three will replace those three... we'll take our missing twelve elsewhere,"

He took a breath, glaring up at the woman as she took a step closer

"But YOU.... you will have to go first," she hissed, raising the axe up above Stiles' head

Stiles clutched his fists, preparing to lunge, maybe nock her off her feet at the last second

But as she swung the axe down-

Nothing happened

Stiles watched in amazement as a black wolf sprang forth from the bushes and latched onto the woman's throat, tearing it out before spitting the glob of flesh onto the ground and taking a few steps closer, blood dripping off of his maw as he panted and walked

"Hey there Big Bad Wolf, what took you so long?" Stiles asked with a slight smirk

The wolf stared at him for a moment before shifting back into Derek's human form

"Sorry, Laura and I were busy doing all of the work," he replied with a small smirk, taking a step closer and reaching behind Stiles to slice through the zip-tie with his claws

Stiles' wrists sprang free, a grin on his face as he jumped up to his feet

"You got 'em all huh?"

Derek just gave a quick nod, reaching up to wipe the blood off of his mouth before allowing his lips to form into a soft smile

"I found something else for you too," he mused

For him? What could Derek have found for him?

Turning curiously towards the woods, Stiles felt his heart leap into his throat with excitement as the remainder of his group- plus one stranger- emerged from the woods

"Liam... Mason, Hayden!! Mr. and Mrs. Yukimura! And- ... I have NO idea who you are,"

"His name is Corey," Mason offered up with a smile

And though Stiles would usually have some more questions about that.... right now he was just tired

"Here, Laura said to bring you these," Liam added a second later, tossing a pair of sweatpants towards Derek

Wich- yeah, ok, that really did need to be taken care of on the double

"Stiles?"

The human looked down towards Allison, stare still angry but... somewhat more forgiving and sympathetic now than it had been

"I'm sorry... for everything,"

Those words were more than just an apology, they were a plea for forgiveness too

A plea that Stiles decided to accept

"Yeah well... just don't go making a habit of this ok? No. More. LIES." he insisted, taking a step closer and reaching behind her to undo the zip-tie

"Um... anyone wanna tell us what's going on here?" Hayden asked with a confused frown

"On the way back to the cabin," Stiles promised, watching Allison closely as she pulled her wrists free and rubbed her fingers along the tender red skin

"So.... what do we do with him?" Derek asked, eyebrows raised as he turned his attention towards the remaining bound Argent

"Take him to your mother? I don't know, maybe he'll come around too,"

"And maybe pigs will fly," Derek snorted, but apparently he didn't argue either, given that he dutifully lead the other man back into the custody of his sister, trusting her to drive him home along with the Yukimuras- who were an old clan of kitsune, not that their daughter knew, and would be more than capable of putting an end to any schemes that the hunter may have

Stiles and Derek, in the mean time, were busy regathering some of their lost supplies to take back with them in the morning

"Hey... Derek?"

"Mm?"

"I've been meaning to tell you something," Stiles said slowly, setting another bag in the trunk of the car

"I've been thinking about that proposal of your's... you know the uh..." he paused, making a growling sound and raising his hands in slashing motions

Derek seemed to get the picture, given the anxious look that suddenly crossed his face as he stopped what he was doing and gave Stiles his full attention

"..And?"

"And.... hell yeah, gimme some of that lycanthropy,"

A relieved smile broke out over the wolf's face as he launched forward and wrapped his arms around Stiles, giving him a long, excited kiss as his heart pounded in his chest

"Thank you..."

"What are you thanking me for? You're the one who's been doing all of this,"

"No you- .... just... thank you,"

Stiles just gave a small smile, returning the hug with equal force and letting his head rest in the crook of Derek's neck

"I've just been thinking... as a wolf, I could protect you too, you know?" he said absently, listening as Derek gave a quiet hum of approval

"And you know me, I'll do anything to keep the people I love- including you- absolutely and entirely _safe_ ,"


End file.
